What We Have Covered
BenQ W5800 Laser Home Cinema Projector Review
Our Verdict
The BenQ W5800 Laser Home Cinema Projector stands out in the competitive high-end projector market, boasting exceptional image quality and color accuracy without sacrificing brightness. Its advanced features and solid performance make it an appealing choice for home theater enthusiasts seeking vibrant visuals and an immersive viewing experience.
Overview
Design & Build Quality
The BenQ W5800 features a robust design, weighing in at 23.1 pounds and measuring 20.7 x 5.7 x 15.4 inches, making it a substantial addition to any home theater setup. The projector’s exterior is sleek with an understated elegance, designed to seamlessly blend into your entertainment environment.
Its construction denotes quality, and the inclusion of advanced optical elements, including a 14-element lens with aspheric and low-dispersion elements, ensures clarity and uniformity across the image. Users can appreciate its precision motorized controls for lens shift, zoom, and focus, making installation flexible and straightforward, whether you opt for front or rear projection setups.
Pros
- Outstanding color accuracy with 100% DCI-P3 coverage.
- Impressive brightness of 2,600 ANSI lumens, suitable for various lighting conditions.
- Advanced HDR support, including HDR10+ and HDR-Pro tone mapping.
- Long-lasting laser light source with up to 25,000 hours of usage in ECO mode.
- User-friendly installation with extensive lens shift and zoom capabilities.
- Factory calibrated for optimal viewing experience out of the box.
- Excellent performance in both 4K and HDR content, delivering sharp images.
- Supports 1080p 3D content without needing additional emitters.
Cons
- High input lag makes it unsuitable for gaming applications.
- Mild rainbow effects may be experienced in high-contrast situations.
- Inconsistent picture mode switching during HDMI input changes.
- Lacks Dolby Vision support, which may be a drawback for some users.
- Limited native contrast compared to some competitors.
- Color Management System (CMS) issues could impact advanced calibration options.
- No built-in streaming or wireless capabilities, which may limit convenience.
- Heavier than many other home theater models, which could affect placement.
Performance & Features
The BenQ W5800 is equipped with a 0.47-inch DLP chip capable of achieving impressive 4K UHD resolution via four-phase pixel shifting, effectively quadrupling its native 1920×1080 resolution. The projector shines with its RGBRGB color wheel, enabling it to cover the full DCI-P3 color space without the significant brightness loss typically associated with color filters.
This feature ensures that users enjoy vibrant and lifelike colors, making the W5800 especially well-suited for cinema enthusiasts who appreciate the director’s vision. One standout aspect of the W5800 is its remarkable brightness, measured at 2,680 ANSI lumens in its brightest mode, which allows for clear images even in moderately lit environments.
Additionally, the W5800 includes accessibility to various picture modes, such as the Filmmaker Mode, allowing users to watch content as intended by creators, providing an accurate representation of colors and tones.
In terms of HDR performance, the W5800 supports HDR10+ and utilizes an advanced HDR-Pro tone mapping feature. This technology divides the image into over 1,000 zones for dynamic adjustments, ensuring that dark scenes retain detail while highlights pop without clipping. While the projector does lack Dolby Vision, most content designed for Dolby Vision can effectively be displayed in HDR10+.
Users may want to be aware of some potential challenges during the W5800’s operation. During testing, mild rainbow effects were occasionally visible, especially in scenes featuring small bright highlights against dark backgrounds, something not uncommon with single-chip DLP projectors.
Additionally, those sensitive to input lag may find the projector less suitable for gaming, as measured input latency peaks at 143ms, which is considerably high and could hinder the gaming experience. However, it is worth noting that BenQ is actively working on a firmware update to potentially address this issue in future iterations of the W5800.
The overall installation process of the W5800 is user-friendly, with its 1.6x zoom, ±21% horizontal lens shift, and ±50% vertical lens shift providing flexibility in setup. Furthermore, users can expect excellent clarity from the well-engineered lens setup, ensuring a sharp image across varying projection setups. While the manual provides detailed information, prospective users may also take advantage of online projection calculators to determine optimal placement for their projection needs.
In a side-by-side comparison with competing models, such as the Epson LS12000 and the Sony VPL-XW5000, the W5800 holds its ground, particularly in color accuracy, achievable brightness, and HDR capabilities. Despite lacking certain advanced features like native gaming modes, the powerful combination of features makes it a worthy contender for any high-end home cinema setup.
Final Verdict
The BenQ W5800 Laser Home Cinema Projector is a strong addition to the high-end projector market, best suited for those looking for high-quality image accuracy and vibrant color reproduction in their home theater environments.
With outstanding factory calibration, competitive brightness performance, and advanced HDR support, users are likely to find themselves enthralled by the engaging visuals it offers.
While there are some limitations, such as input lag and occasional rainbow effects, these are typical of many DLP-based projectors at this price point. If your priorities include color fidelity, brilliant image brightness, and rich HDR content viewing, the W5800 is undoubtedly worth considering. In conclusion, the BenQ W5800 stands as an excellent choice for home theater enthusiasts who value both performance and a comprehensive visual experience.
